Ursuline Sister Canonized

MATI CITY –  The Order of St. Ursula (OSU) or Ursuline Sisters of Mati are happy to announce the recent canonization of Marie of the Incarnation Guyart, OSU.  This was initially disclosed by Mati pioneering Sr. Aurore Jean, OSU, to DXHM and Herald news to make the Christian faithful aware of God’s gift to their congregation.

St. Marie of the Incarnation was born on 28 October 1599 at Tours, France to a baker and raised in a family of craftsmen and tradesmen.  A pious and sometimes mystical child, she would memorize and recite homilies, and early wanted to become a nun.  Against her wishes, she entered an arranged marriage with Claude Martin, a silk manufacturer, at age seventeen, and was soon the mother of one son.  Widowed after two years of marriage, she moved back with her family and worked as an embroiderer.

On 25 March 1620 she experienced a vision in which she was shown all her faults and human frailties, then was immersed in Christ’s blood.  This event changed her completely, and her desire to be involved in religious life translated to prayer, liturgical devotion, and charity.

Finally leaving her father’s house, Marie worked as bookkeeper then company manager for her brother-in-law’s shipping company.  However, the drive to the religious life never ended, and in January 1631 she asked her sister to care for her son Claude, and then joined the Ursulines at Tours, France on 25 January 1631, taking her final vows in 1633 as Marie de l’Incarnation.

After serving as mistress of novices and doctrinal instructor, she received another vision of her going to a huge country of mountains and forests to build a house for Christ.  This was Canada and she landed in Quebec, Canada with Marie-Madeleine de la Peltrie, on 1 August 1639, the foundress and first superior of the Ursulines in Canada.

She worked as a missionary to the natives and studied the local languages, later writing Algonquin, Iroquois, Montagnais, and Ouendat dictionaries, and a catechism in Iroquois. She died on  30 April 1672 of hepatitis in Quebec, Canada.  On 19 July 1911 she was Venerated by declaration of Pope St. Pius X, Beatified 22 June 1980 by Pope John Paul II, and Canonized  3 April 2014 by Pope Francis.

According to Sr. Aurore, OSU, the Ursulines in the diocese of Mati will celebrate the canonization of St. Marie on the date of their congregation’s silver founding anniversary in Mati on May 3, 2014.  Details of the celebration will follow. (SR. MARIETTA ALO, OND)